A trail running festival highlighted by three trail races will be held in the Camden Hills region of Maine this September.
The Megunticook Trail Running Festival will take place Saturday, September 12 in Camden Hills State Park, Maine. The park is 5,710 acres and is known for its sweeping views of Penobscot Bay.
The trail running event will feature three races of various distances: a 50K, a 20K, and a 10K.
Race organizers describe Megunticook 50K as both beautiful and brutal. The course covers more than 90 percent of the trails in the park. The views along the course are stunning, but the trail is not for the faint of heart. It features more than 7,600 feet of elevation gain along steep trails littered with lots of rocks and roots.
A new addition to the festival, the Halfast 20K is different than the other two races, as it features fewer rocks, roots, and summits, making it an ideal choice for those exploring trail racing for the first time. It’s also perfect for seasoned runners eager to push their speed on a faster 20k route.
Only 3.9K of the 20K course is singletrack. The rest is mainly on a wide gravel trail. The only summit on this course is Cameron Mountain where to the east, you’ll get a view from Bald Rock Mountain to the ocean; to the west, you’ll be overlooking Megunticook Lake.
If you think the festival’s shortest race would be the easiest, you’d be wrong. The aptly-named Wicked Tough 10K tests even the most accomplished runner on steep singletrack with 1,600 feet of vertical gain.
The majority of the course is on trails through beautiful woods. But twice, runners will break out onto open ledge and have stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean and the coastal areas from Acadia National Park to Tenant’s Harbor.
